Hurricanes vs. Eagles: Final Report Card, Player Grades for Miami

Hurricanes vs. Eagles: Final Report Card, Player Grades for Miami

It wasn't pretty but the Miami Hurricanes left Boston College with the win, 41-32. The Hurricane defense was less than stellar as they allowed the Eagles to stay within striking distance all day long.

Boston College outgained Miami in total yards, 541 to 414. Chase Rettig picked apart the Hurricanes defense, throwing for 441 yards and two touchdowns.

Miami, however, controlled the game with big offensive plays, especially from true freshman Duke Johnson who had 135 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries.

Here are is report card for the Miami Hurricanes' first game of the season.

Quarterbacks

1 of 10

Stephen Morris was extremely effective, completing 28 of 45 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown. He also threw an interception, but it was not his fault. The pass bounced off the chest of wide receiver Rashawn Scott into the hands of an Eagle defender.

Although Morris didn't have the greatest stats, he was very methodical in his passes. I only counted two or three passes that he foolishly tried to force.

Morris kept the Boston College defense honest on his feet as well, rushing for 18 yards on eight carries—three of them for first downs.

Overall, Morris played a solid and very safe game. I would have liked to see Morris make some deeper throws, but he just never got the opportunity.

Final grade: A-

Running Backs

2 of 10

Well the answer to who is going to fill Lamar Miller's shoes may have been answered by true freshman Duke Johnson.

Johnson ran for 135 yards on just seven carries and two touchdowns. He took a handoff from Morris in the second quarter and bounced off a couple tackles for a 54-yard touchdown. Then in the third quarter Johnson turned on the jets and sailed passed a would-be tackler for a 56-yard touchdown.

Mike James got a majority of the carries, rushing 14 times for 54 yards. Eduardo Clements scored the other touchdown on the ground for Miami when he ran it in from one yard out in the opening quarter.

Overall grade: B+

Wide Receivers

3 of 10

There are good and bad things to say about the receivers—they made some very good catches but also dropped a few easy ones as well.

Cornerback Brandon McGee should have had an interception on Rettig's last pass of the game, but he couldn't haul it in.

For the first game of the season, I will give them more credit than I should and put most of the blame on the defensive linemen and coaches.

Final grade: C-

Special Teams

9 of 10

The special teams was the most constant unit on the field for the Hurricanes. Not only did the kicker and punter do well, the kickoff team flew down the field and didn't allow much on returns.

Kicker Jake Wieclaw made both field goals he attempted and was five-for-five on PATs. Punter Dalton Botts punted five times for 203 yards (40.6 yards per punt), including a 48-yard bomb in the first half.

Botts saved Miami from a disaster when the long snapper hit the up-man on a punt, causing Botts to chase the ball down, elude a defender and punt it away.

Final grade: A+

Coaching

10 of 10

It is so hard to grade a coaching unit that has 64 freshmen on their roster like Miami has. There are going to be mistakes, and many of them came due to inexperience.

Now, putting the freshman stuff aside, the coaches struggled to adjust to the Eagles' offensive attack. I thought for sure they would make some adjustments after the dismal first half, but it never came.

Defensive coordinator Mark D'Onofrio struggled calling the right defensive plays all game long. I don't know if it's because Miami lacks the players on defense or because he didn't know how to defend it—either way, I was disgusted.

Offensive coordinator, Jedd Fisch called a very safe game for the offense. Although i was irritated by the short pitch passes, they seemed to be pretty effective.

Head coach Al Golden did a great job overall getting his team ready for Boston College. Beating a conference opponent on the road to start a season isn't the easiest thing to do—especially for such a young team.

Overall, I was too disappointed in the defense to give them a good grade. There are too many good athletes on the defense to allow such a ridiculous amount of yards to a fair-to-good quarterback in Chase Rettig.